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| Thursday, August 19, 2021 |
| Shohei Ohtani is ridiculous. Freddie Freeman hit for another cycle. Wander Franco has an .845 OPS in the second half. Wednesday was fun! It doesn't stop there. We spent some time on the podcast today evaluating Josiah Gray since he's garnered so much hype recently. Here's what we found. Over four starts with the Nationals, Gray has a 2.86 ERA with 22 strikeouts over 22 innings pitched. The strikeouts, and in particular the swinging strikes, are very encouraging. What's not encouraging is his fly ball rate. |
| Though he's only pitched 30 innings to this point, Gray's fly ball rate is 60%. As a result, he's already allowed 11 home runs. To put that in perspective, Mike Foltynewicz leads baseball with 34 homers allowed over 130 innings pitched. If we project Gray's home run rate over Folty's 130 innings, we get 47 home runs allowed. Obviously, that won't work. We also have to assume that Gray's 60% fly ball rate will drop over time. Max Scherzer currently leads all qualified starting pitchers with a 49% fly ball rate. And speaking of Scherzer, let's bring this full circle. Scherzer should be the goal for any starting pitcher but, specifically, Gray. Scherzer has made a Hall of Fame career allowing a bunch of fly balls. How? He has filthy stuff and limits walks. Solo home runs don't hurt. Gray has the makings of an elite starting pitcher. He just has to rein in the fly balls and home runs. |
| Of course, as always, you can follow to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify. |
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| The greatest season by any player ever? |
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| Angels SP/DH Shohei Ohtani was at it again on Wednesday night in what has become arguably the single greatest season by any player in MLB history. Ohtani went yard again, marking his 40th homer of the season. 40! He became the first player this season to reach 40 homers, and if that wasn't enough he has also added 18 stolen bases. Ohtani is batting .269 with a 1.011 OPS and none of this even factors in that he was also dominant on the mound Wednesday. |
| Ohtani spun eight innings and allowed just one earned run. His command has been incredible in the second half and he didn't walk a batter in this one. He induced 15 swinging strikes on 90 pitches and he now has a 2.79 ERA to go along with a sparkling 1.06 WHIP and 120 strikeouts in 100 innings pitched. This also marks six straight quality starts for Ohtani, and he has only walked a total of four batters in that span. |
| Ohtani entered the 2021 season with odds as deep at one point as +3200 to win MVP. We only hope you got a piece of that action. He's a near-lock to grab the AL MVP. While being arguably one of the most dominant pitchers on a per-inning basis this season, Ohtani also has nearly half as many homers as the entire Pittsburgh Pirates team in 2021. |
| Freeman hits for his second career cycle |
| At the beginning of the 2021 season for the first couple of months, it looked like Braves 1B Freddie Freeman was going to have an uncharacteristically down season. For reference, on June 9, Freeman was batting .224. It once again proved foolish to ever doubt one of the most consistent Fantasy Baseball hitters there is. Freeman hit for his second career cycle on Wednesday night. |
| Freeman is red hot now and has racked up five straight multi-hit games. He's gone 13 for 21 in that span with three homers and four walks. His batting average is now all the way up to .301 -- just like that. The Braves are now surging -- first place in the NL East -- and Freeman is a big reason. |
| The FBT crew was saying the Statcast data made this look like a typical Freeman season, even back in June, and now he's proving why. He's already hit the third-most homers (27) he's ever had in a season with a month-plus to go. He'll be an obvious borderline first-round pick again next year. |
| More news and notes |
| Unfortunately, our guy Patrick Sandoval went on the IL with a lumbar spine stress reaction. Joe Maddon said the injury has the potential to be season-ending, though there is no clear timetable. Jose Quintana will start Thursday. We have an update on Chris Bassitt. He's been placed on the IL and is expected to undergo surgery Aug. 24 to repair the displaced and fractured bones on his right cheek. Bassitt will need six weeks to fully recover so that means it's time to drop him. Freddy Peralta left Wednesday's start with right shoulder discomfort. We're awaiting further details on timetable and where he'll hit the IL. Jacob DeGrom was told after his doctor's appointment Monday that the inflammation in his right elbow is improving, but he'll remain shut down from throwing until at least Aug. 27. According to Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated, the Mets are leaning towards shutting down deGrom for the remainder of the season. Aroldis Chapman and Anthony Rizzo were both activated by the Yankees on Wednesday. Rizzo was batting second. Chapman started the ninth with a four-run lead, gave up two hits, a walk, one ER, His fastball was down 1.7 mph, and slider down 1.2 mph.The Blue Jays placed Alek Manoah on the bereavement list, which means he'll miss between 3-7 days. George Springer was diagnosed with a Grade 1 left knee sprain, which is relatively minor. He's week-to-week for now. Anthony DeSclafani left his start due to right ankle soreness. It doesn't seem too serious. He's day-to-day. Pete Alonso left Wednesday's game after getting hit by a pitch on his elbow. X-rays came back negative.Rhys Hoskins is doing better and could return off the IL Friday.How about this? Lance Lynn was ejected after throwing his belt at the umpire during a foreign substance check.Kwang Hyun Kim will begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Thursday.Akil Baddoo and Derek Hill both started rehab on Wednesday. Baddoo is 60% rostered if you want to add him before others do. Anthony Santander sat Wednesday due to a sore ankle. Potentially massive news: our old buddy John Gant is starting Thursday against the Yankees. |
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| Garcia continues his career year |
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| One of the best surprises of the Fantasy Baseball season has been the play of Brewers OF Avisail Garcia. On Wednesday, he was Scott White's OMGG player of the night. And for some reason we haven't talked about Garcia much at all this year. Garcia went 2 for 4 with a pair of home runs on Wednesday as the Brewers defeated the Cardinals in extra innings -- a double donger. It was his 22nd and 23rd on the year. His previous career high was 20. He's batting .350 with eight homers since the start of July and yet he's still not getting a lot of hype! |
| Garcia has more H2H points per game than Alex Verdugo, Adam Frazier, Trey Mancini and he's not far behind Joey Gallo. He's startable even in three-outfield leagues and he's quietly having the breakout season Scott projected him to have last year when he first came over to the Brewers. |
| The good news is the Statcast numbers back it up so this should continue through the Fantasy playoffs. Leave him in your lineups. |
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| Franco is heating up |
| For a while, it looked like none of the top hitting prospects were going to make much of a Fantasy impact in 2021, but that might be changing fast. Rays SS Wander Franco is starting to really heat up. He went 3 for 4 with a double, RBI and a walk on Wednesday night. |
| Here's a look at Franco's second half: .288 batting average, four homers, .845 OPS, 10 walks and 17 strikeouts (over 28 games). When you break down the tape on Franco, he has excellent plate discipline and makes excellent contact. As Chris noted, he's still not hitting right-handed pitchers well right now, but there's no major concern here because he didn't have an issue with it in the minors. You have to be pleased with how he's played as of late. |
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